Web sites are locations accessed on the Internet. A web site is typically composed of a large number of web pages which are linked together. Generally one of the web pages corresponding to a web site is a home page, which provides information which leads to web pages associated with the web site, such web pages are referred to as associated web pages herein. The term web pages as used herein includes the home page and associated web pages. The web pages are stored on a server connected to the Internet. The web site is accessed by going to the URL associated with the web site.
Each web page has a corresponding document stored on the server which results in the display on a computer terminal, display device, etc. of the web page associated with the stored document. The stored document is typically in HTML language, but can be any other language suitable for displaying a web page. Unless indicated to the contrary, the term HTML document will be understood to generically refer to a document in any language that can be used to display a web page. Generally, there is one HTML document for each web page of the web site. Generally a web site is made up of web pages that have a consistent format which makes it apparent that they belong together, that is, there are many common features between the web pages. In general, web sites can be made up of groups of web pages wherein the web pages within each group, referred to herein as associated web pages, have more common elements than with web pages from another group within the web site. A typical constant element between associated web pages is a menu that is common to each web page. The menu, for example, could be a simple list of all associated web pages, which permits direct movement from any one web page of the group to any other web page of the group, to a web page outside of the group of the web site, or to another web site. Since many and possibly all web pages contain these common elements and since there is a document for each web page, a lot of storage space is taken up with repeated code. Moreover, if a change is desired in this menu or other common element, it has to be made in every HTML document that contains this common element which results in a lot of wasted time making changes to the identical code in each web page. It is tedious to change each document in the same way and uses time which could be used more productively.
One solution to this problem is to use the utility server side include, which permits embedding in a document a command or series of commands, which, for example, can be a function call or series of function calls. This embedded command can permit different operations to be performed, such as, for example, to run a program, to move to another page or a another file can be included in a displayed web wage by going to that other document and displaying it. This function call is static and not dynamically changeable by a user displaying a web page. When a web page with such a function call is run to display the web page, the system will look for and find the referenced file and display it in the appropriate place in the displayed web page. Therefore, a menu or other element which is common to a group of web pages can be stored in a separate file. Thus server side include can be used for elements of a group of web pages that are common between the web pages which can be updated, such as to modify the common menu or other common element. Thus using server side include a set of documents, each of which, for example, has the same menu, can display the menu using server side include by making a type of function call. If the menu is stored in file MENU.TXT, the document that is being displayed contains a command that instructs the server to insert the MENU.TXT file at the appropriate spot in a displayed webpage when it is called as an HTML command. This way the menu can be inserted in every displayed web page that contains it. The server side include is a fixed command in the file that contains it. If there are many server side includes calls, the system gets bogged down and runs more slowly and can run very slowly if there are a very large number of server side include function calls. This occurs because the file that is being displayed does not contain all the HTML code needed to display the web page. Rather than making one request many file requests are made, which slows down the system to a level below what is desirable. To get the web page to be displayed as quickly as possible, all the HTML code is preferably part of the document being displayed. Using server side include still requires that there is a lot of repeated code for that part of the document that is not related to the menu. This is because server side include is static and not dynamically changeable by the user displaying the web page. Using server side include each web page with a common portion, such as a menu, must have a file associated with it which contains the function call to the menu file. The present invention avoids these problems.